Texas senator john cornyn spoke on the floor today about the Church Shooting in texas. The texan republican aimed at strengthening the system, following his remarks, a number of senators came to the floor to talk about veterans day. Ou as the world now knows, there was a tragic shooting in texas last sunday that took the livese. Of 26 innocent people and injured 20 more. There was a prayer vigil for those victims where the community gathered to pray and pay their respects to the deceased. Cu there were two people in attendance i would like to highlight. Stevenm and johnny. I mention them yesterday and perhaps youve seen them on the news. Ive been thinking a lot about them. Steven is the man who responded to the shooters rampage by grabbing his rifle and running toward the church. Johnny drove the truck that chased the gunmen down at high speeds. Al inen typical texas fashion, you dont consider themselves to be heroes, but i consider them to be heroes. They said they were just doing what they need to be a done. Johnny said it was act now, ask questions later. I think we should take our cues from johnny and steven. We should show courage and track down anything thats not right and do our best to fix it. Le maybe you have to be a texan or alaskan toe appreciate what he did. He was an nra certified shooting instructor. He heard the shooting, grabbed his gun and basically ended up stopping the shooter from killing more people. He had more ammunition to do more damage than he did but thanks to the intervention of this concerned citizen, who was willing to put himself into harms way, and to actually shot the shooter, and discouraged him from doing more,ts but for his actions, a lot more people would have died on that terrible, terrible sunday. The police cant be everywhere all the time. Thats one reason why, in my state and around the country, we believe citizens ought to be able to defend themselves. We now know the gunmen was courtmartialed by the air force and convicted of serious domestic abuse. Under the law this should have prohibited him from ever purchasing a firearm. The fact that it didnt means that we need to figure out why the federal law wasnt followed and make darn sure that the relevant information is always uploaded to the background check database. There werepl multiple errors, human and systematic errors that prevented, but should have prevented the shooter from ever buying a firearm. The unlawfully purchased firearms that he wasnt legally permitted to purchase, background checks did not turn up his air force conviction for domestic violence, for a felony by fracturing the skull of his stepson as an infant. Because these convictions were uploaded on the federal databas database, i plan to introduce legislation, and ive been talking to a number of colleagueses on both sides of the aisle who are interested in providing a solution to this problem, but we will introduce legislation to ensure that all federal departments, and agencies upload the required conviction records. My legislation will also encourage, to the greatest extent possible under the constitution that state and localta governments do the same. We all remember the terrible shooting that occurred at Virginia Tech a few years ago. That was a person who had already been adjudicated mentallydi ill by the state. But because the state did not upload that into the federal database when he went to buy a firearm, there was no hit. There was no disqualifier that appeared that would have prevented him from buying that firearm in the first place. We need to make sure those systems work every time. Sutherland springs is exposed the governments failing to comply with reporting requirements. This is unacceptable and it must change. Yesterday the chief of staff at the air force came by my office, and iml grateful to him. I told him this must have been one of his worst days when he found out that the air force had, by its failure, somehow failed to notify the federal authorities that this individual was disqualified from buying a firearm, and he appropriately expressed grave concern over the fact that the gunmans convictions were not t sent to the database, and he pledged to get to the root of the problem. It is worth noting that we have tried to address similar problems before and we can do it again. In 2015, i introduced a bill called the Mental Health and safe communities act that addressed a related issue and that was the failure of state and local authorities to upload valuable Mental Health records into the same database. I think theres a bipartisan willingness in the chamber to work on problems inherent in the sharing of these records. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this new legislation we are shooting to the for next week because we owe it to the men and women in the families to make sure our laws are enforced and the individuals like the shooter with a history of violence do not gain legal access to firearms. Mr. President , p this week, this coming weekil will mark veterans day. Its an important time for us to reflect onet what veterans do for us and what their families do for us. The sacrifices that those who serve is incredibly important. We have half a million missouri veterans. The values and commitment and freedom in our country that they stand for, just a couple weeks ago, we had an opportunity to welcome veterans who came tos washington with the honor v flight program, i think you do this too, but every time i get a chance, if theres an honorn b flight from our state, i always try to get down there because it is a great time to see and talk to and thank those who have served us. When the honor flight started 20 years ago emma there were still some world war i veterans coming and then there were almost all world war ii veterans and today we see a few world war iian veterans and some korea veterans and some vietnam veterans, all of whom continue to serve in the great tradition of being willing to fight for the freedoms we enjoy every day. I find it humbling and gratifying to know that those veterans could come here and enjoy the day with each other but also, in many cases, the first time theyve ever been to the capital they go to World War Two memorial and to arlington and other places on that trip that now so many tens of thousands have taken. Many of those veterans that i saw the other day, and that ive seen for the history of the honor flight, were just teenagers when they answered the call to serve. Basically, a little more than High School Kids who knew that something needed to be done and they were able and willing to do it. They fought i difficult battle in some cases, often under unbearable conditions. Some of them lost their closest friends in the military or comrades in arms or comrades right beside them. Some lost people who went out on another mission and never cameam back. I was down in perryville missouriss. They are building an exact replica of the Vietnam Memorial, the vietnam war. We were able to present them with the flag, the group that had raised the money and made the plans at the Vietnam Memorial on the wall to take back and become part of the Vietnam Memorial at perryville. Our veterans are an Extraordinary Group of men and women. They really stand for the best we stand for as a nation. Its important that we dont just honor them on veterans day but we honor them every day that we live in this free and prosperous nation that they helped defend. Its hard not to take all the freedoms that we enjoyor for granted because generations of americans have been willing to fight and die to protect those freedoms, and because of that, generations of americans have benefited from those freedoms and it seems to us, the way people should be able to live everywhere and sometimes the way we think people do live, but in many parts of the world, having the security to walk out the doorr every morning and drop your kids at school and go to work and earn a living, to worship as you please, to build a better life is not available to people in other countries the way it is here because of that of gratitude we owe to our veterans. One of the great areas of legislative success has been in the work for veterans. The chairman is going to follow me on the floor in just a few minutes and hes the chairman of that committee and sure hes got a great committee, but theyve got a great chairman and that committee, its chairman, the committee in the house have passed eight bills that the president of the United States has signed into law to do a number of things for our veterans. Weve built on previous progress for veterans care. A few years ago we made the decisions that they need to have more choices. If youre a veteran, you shouldnt have to drive by the hospital you would like to t go to to go to a hospital miles and hours away. You shouldnt have to drive by three facilities that would do as good a job or better to get to veterans facility. Therear s are some things they should be better at than anybody else. They should be b better at dealing with posttraumatic stress than anybody else though they may not be accessible and they should be better at dealing with eye injuries since all time people who work with prosthetics, people who have lost arms and legs in the service, they should be pretty good at that. Theres no particular reason they should be all that good at open heart surgery or kidney dialysis or all the other things you go to hospital for. If thats where you want to go but we found out a lot of veterans would rather go closer to home. They would rather go to the hospital they are more familiar with when they need their own healthcare. They like to go to the hospital theyve been to lots of time with other family members and others so weve really extreme bandedro the program and expanded the money available for that program as you try to create these w opportunities sidebyside with with an existing facility. There has to be some startup money involved but eventually our young veterans will find they can almost always find a hospital theyd rather go to or doctor theyd rather see. Weve increased compensation for veterans with serviceconnected disabilities and world war ii veterans who have suffered a lifetime of illness because he was part of a mustard gas experiment. Hes finally getting both the compensation and the recognition that his Lifetime Health was impacted by something that happened while he was serving his country. Weve continued efforts to address the problems that they had by passing legislation to modernize the outdated benefits claims and appeals process to make it easier for va employees to be fired. While we want to protect employees who point out whats wrong, theres been plenty of whistles to be blown by the way, at the va over the past decade, and while we want to be sure people can blow those whistles, we also want to be t sure that the va can quickly and effectively move to remove employees who areg not doing what they ought to do, and in fact they are doing things they shouldnt be doing. We work to expand the possibility and the opportunity for educational benefits by expanding what can happen under the post 911 g. I. Bill and helping connect veterans with employers to provide benefits and programs, the bill that i sponsored in congress was part of the first major piece off the legislation that the Congress Passed this year, and within 11 months or so, starting when that past and i think sometime in the next few weeks, the department of t labor is going to talk about how we recognize and evaluate employers who hire veterans, who give veterans credit for skills they learned in the military, who promote veterans,r every employer that wants to say they hire veterans, thats a good thing because you should want to do that. Its sort of the lead standard forli energy. It creates a standard that we canan recognize companies who do that and do that in a significant way and im certainly pleased the secretary at the department of labor has really put that on the fast track to get that done so these companies can begin to be recognized for what they do. They have worked hard, they do dangerous things, theyve kept us safe. We owe to them our continued job as legislators just as we owe to those who follow an footsteps our continued effort that people in our country have everythingg they need to defend our country and we are grateful to those who defended the country in the past. I yield the floor. Mr. President , i want to thank senator blunt for his eloquent remarks and all the things weve tried to do in the Veterans Committee and for pointing out the many reasons why we are so proud of s americans who serve us and allow you and i to be here today. If it were not for our veterans, rest assured this republic would not exist. I did an interview with a reporter who want to ask me number of questions about the Current Administration what we were doinghen for veterans and things like that. Turned out to be a 35, 40 minute interview. I said ive got to go. He said i have one more question. I always know that means the zingers come in. He said dont you think we could save a lot of money if we didnt fight any more wars and i thought for a minute and i said we probably could but there wouldnt be any reason for you and i to be alive because we are here because people want to be here in america to live free. We fight battles overseas and sometimes challenges domestically to keep us free. America is a great country. You dont find people trying to break out of the United States of america. A they are trying to break in. Its a safe and great place to raise a family and serve in so many ways. This year end on the 11th day of the 11th hour in the 11th minute in november which is when we always celebrate veterans day, talk to the men and say thanks to those who have come and gone and those were still here to fight and serve and protect us. Always remember the congress decided after world war i to decide that the 11th day, the 11th month, the 11th hour will be the time the bellwood toll to celebrate and pay tribute to veterans. Rogge told that bell one more time to give thanks. For all theyve done for us and all they will do for us in the future. Its best to talk about veterans to talk about them as the people they were in the people they ar are, whether theyre alive or whether they passed on. I want technet to veterans whose paths have crossed p my life and point out why we owe them so much and we have so much to be thankful for. One of them is Jackson Elliott of berks county georgia. At the home of a nuclear powernt plant, its a beautiful rule county in georgia. Jack was my best friend in college. We met in 1962. We graduated in 1966. Ill never forget the last time i saw jack. It was when he was shipping out to go to the marine corps. He decided when he graduated it was more important for him to volunteer and fight for our country because of what was going on in vietnam than anything else. He joined the marine corps, got his commission as an officer, became a captain and fought and died in vietnam. Ill never forget the last words he told me only put them on the bus from georgia to atlanta to be shipped out. He said im sure im coming bac back, dont worry about me, just pray for me. But in case i dont, make sure people remember who Jackson Elliott cox the third was. I felt do that and sure enough, two years later he was shot and killed by a sniper in vietnam. He lost his life at the age of 24. Finest human being i ever knew. Nicest guy had ever met. My favorite friend all my life. He was taken from me because he volunteered to serve and fight for our country. Im gonna keep today and the promise i made at that bus station. I want you know who he was. He was a good old country boy from south georgia who volunteered to serve hisia country and gave his life so you and i could be here today. There are thousands of him all over theo world. We have so much to. [inaudible] less than half of our population has served us like he did. You all them a debt of gratitude. Sometime when you get a chance to pay them back, take that enopportunity. You wouldnt get to where you were going if they didnt allow you to be safe and travel. The second name i want to mention is noah harris. Hes from georgia. He was a cheerleader at the university of georgia on saturday afternoon in november 2001. It was his junior year. Y they let the school to victory and celebrated like everybody else did. A few years later on september 11, 2001, he turned the television on and thought 3000 innocent citizens, most of them americans, die in the twin towers when al qaeda and Osama Bin Laden and the faces of evil attacked our country. They took her innocence, killed her people, and change the world forever. He was a cheerleader. We dont have a mandatory draft anymore. He was not serving, he was graduate near half, he wanted to be an architect. The nextn morning after 911 when he left his dorm, he went to the army rotc building at the university of georgia campus and walked in and said i want to go fight and get the people who did this to my country my friends. They said you cant do that because at the twoyear program and you graduate next year. You dont have enough time to do that. He said i will double up on my studies and do whatever i need to do. I want to go and fight for my g country and they let a man, and he did. He graduated with honors. A few months later he actuated. Before long he was in iraq, a suburb of baghdad and he had beanie babies in one pocket and ammunition in the other. He was trying to win over the hearts of thein iraqi children and help return their country to some sort of a democracy republic. I knew him casually. I knew hisar pants well, rick and lucy, and i know they have mourned every day since they lost him in baghdad when he died in an ied accident. I know they are proud of what he did and why he did it. Im proud to stand on the floor the United States senate today to talk about noah and Jackson Elliott cox who are exemplary of all the others who have served in the military. Men and women, rich and poor, black and white who have borne the battle for us so we can be where we are today. It reminds me of the guy in philadelphia after the constitution was adopted in Constitution Hall and they said mr. Franklin, what have you givens. [inaudible] because we have a military were in a fight for what we believe in, protect their citizens and keep our country free. The country that our Founding Fathers gave to us that was nurtured in the early days of this republic that is now hundreds of years old is still there today for lots of reasons. But principally,fo the foundation of a strong and vibrant military. So when veterans day comes by, give thanks to the veterans you know. Mention a couple of them like i did here so their memory and names never die but also so we can lift them up at a time we pause for a minute to say thank you for the greatest country on the face of this earth. Senator blunt talked about our committee and what weve done this year. I want take a minute to reiterate some of the things he said. They dont go to the battlefield as partisan, they go as american. They risk their own life and sometimes sacrifice it so we can do what ben franklin said, keep that republic. We owe them a lot. In many ways we all themem everything. The secretary of the va appointed by president trump, and under a commitment to bipartisan service for all our members, which means we do almost everything unanimously and if not unanimously, almost unanimously. We passed the whistleblower protection act to give them the protection they need. They were not doing their job and we give them the safe harbor they need to encourage us to help root out problems and we are doing these. With past the accountability bill to open the sunshine on the employees of the va and give them the ability to terminate the fire, if you will, for an employee who is not doing the job they need to be doing for our veterans. We hold the standard up a little bit higher, we are magnifying choice so they can have more choice in the healthcare and we can use the multiplier. The 21st century g. I. Bill, we finally made sure that applies to everybody, not just world war ii or vietnam war. Weve done everything we could to see to it to make sure we are there for them in retirement and later life. The sacrifice they make is great and the sacrifices weve made. 90 of the time they come home when theyre wounded. Because of the advancements protection and the services we have, a lot of veterans have lived that would not have lived years ago. Presti sits for an arm or leg when i or some part of the body thats lost in battle. Most of them succumb to ied and that nature but we have the healthcare to provide them with the best possible rehabilitation we can. You can never really replace a leg or an eye or body part. They where the burden of the battle in the war. We have the obligation as a congress of the United States and house and senate to see to it that we backup those promises our recruiters made when they came and joined the military because they get those services from the veterans administration. My ranking member, a democrat from montana is doing a fantastic job. The House Committee is doing a great job. The members of the senate are doing a great job. In a week and a half we will have our final bill of the year which will make us 848. We will reform the va and work with them and do it in such a way that we get more service and more dollars for what we send an america means the great country its always been , safe and free because of those who volunteer. Sometime on the 11th day on november 11, you will pause for moment and remember thats when we celebrate veterans day. Its a perfect day to remember all those who fought in the past. Lets look around and every time we see a uniform, stop and say thank you for your service because those are people who are risking their lives so we can do whatever we choose to do in the land of the free and home of the brave. There are a lot of things to be thankful for but nothing more important than the United States military. God bless our country and ouren veterans and god bless the United States of america. I yield back. Mr. President , senator from north dakota. Mr. President , im pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the floor of the senate after my esteemed colleague from the state of georgia. My colleague is the chairman of the Veterans Affairs committee and we just want to express my appreciation for his commitment and his work on behalf of all of our great veterans. Like him, i rise today to speak in tribute to our veterans and men and women in uniform and all that we do for them. This weekend, events across the country will pay tribute to the fine men and women who haved served in our Nations Armed forces. Every day, but especially on veterans day, we honor the soldiers who have left the conference o comforts of home and family to defend our freedom and fight for our way of life. Ed our freedoms have been secured by the sweat and sacrifice of courageous men and women who, throughout our history has bravely done what was needed to protect our great nation. We also recognize those who serve do not serve alone. The families and loved ones who have supported our veterans in their service. This veterans day, we want our military members from our greatest generation to those men and women fighting in the war on terror today. These americans understand best the words of president Ronald Reagan when he said, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didnt pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be for for, protected and handed on for them to do the same. These men and women who have fought and protected our country have given so much and we cannot do enough to thank them, whether they return for active military duty seven days ago or seven decades ago. Although we can never repay our debt of gratitude, one of the most tangible ways we recognize our services by providing the men and women the Quality Health care and support services, including education and work opportunities. With that that in mind, let me outline some initiatives we been working on to provide for our veterans. Congress has passed significant veterans bills this year including legislation that holds the va accountable and insurers they are putting our veterans first. Legislation that updates and modernizes the benefit claims and appeals process, reducing wait times for our veterans. Additionally, one of my Top Priorities is ensuring they have access to Healthcare Options closer to their homes and their families. This includes improving access to services under the veterans choice t program and building on the success of the Veterans Care Coordination initiative at the Fargo Va Medical Center in my own state. This effort has decreased the wait times under veterans choice from 24 days down to five or six days. This initiative conserve as a model to help address delays in scheduling appointments are the veterans choice for grandmaog across nation. Weve invited secretary shelton from north dakota to see this work firsthand. Our care Coordination Initiative has expanded to the va facility in helena montana as well. I believe it will be expanded to other locations across country. We also passed an extension of the program earlier this year end secured 2. 1 billion in additional funding for the program. This gives us time to work with the va on the next phase of thehe program. In addition we are working to improve local access to longterm care for our veterans. We secured aet commitment from the secretary to work with us on longterm care and Health Services act. D we have now included this legislation, introduces legislation in the senate and a companion bill has been introduced in the house of representatives. The legislation would remove ferguson red tape that prevents Nursing Homes and other providers from accepting veteran patients. Our bill allows the va to enter into provider agreements with qualified healthcare and extended care facilities, bypassing complex federal contracting requirements. This will give them more options closer to their homes, their families and their loved ones. Additionally, early this year Congress Passed the forever g. I. Bill which improved and expanded access to education and workforce opportunities. This is part of our effort to ensure we are supporting our veterans as they transition back to civilian life and work atat home. These are just a few examples of our efforts to ensure that they have the resources and the support that they have so richly earned. While we cannot say thank you enough in this way, we can honor the courage and the sacrifice. We honor veterans day because we have the greatest veterans in the world who have committed themselves to protect our nation, and in so doing have transformed this country into the greatest the world has ever known. May god continue to bless our veterans and this great nation that they have been protected and to make sure that we honor their Selfless Service for all our men and uniform and are women not only on veterans day, but every day. With that, i feel the floor. The senator from north carolina. Thank you is to present. I appreciate the kind words of the senator. I come at this from two or three different perspectives. Fe we are trying to work on things to make sure when somebody goes out of active duty and into veteran status, that we make it as productive as it can be to makeet sure they interact fully with the workforce and education opportunities. I also want to take a minute to talk about the person who served to never work uniform. That is the husband or the wife or the children that on this veterans day we should also think, a lot of times when i have an opportunity, i live in Charlotte North Carolina and i take a point to get to the airport little bit early so i can go up to the uso and spend some time eating with people there transitioning through active duty, just to thank them for their service, and often times i will thank a man or woman in the same i didnt serve but my husband or wife did. Ill say by virtue of you being a military spouse, you served, as dear children. On this veterans day, lets make sure we expand those thank you to include everybody whos affected when somebody is deployed in a dangerous place or even serving during peacetime because it is a great sacrifice and its one we should always show gratitude for. Atat in north carolina, we have about 800,000 veterans. We also have some of the highest military concentrations of any state. Its the home of the Global Response force, over 60000, 3 65000 men and women serving, 338 generals and a little bit closer to the coast you get to jacksonville where we have camp was run. Camp lejeune. Many people dont realize that its stationed out of carolina. Po seeing these men and women veserve every day, the ones who served before them were now part of our veterans population, we should thank them all for their Current Service with her pastor with and mr. President , the gentleman from arkansas, i went to thank you for your service because you served briefly in congress before entering the u. S. Senate. Thats another amazing thing about the veterans. They continue to serve. If you go to a coffee shop v t, you may see a huddle of veterans around somebody whos organized the event, thats probably a veteran making sure they are speaking with each other, working throughsn some of the challenges that some of them have when theyre put in very difficult situations. If you go into a community center, you almost always see a veteran continuing to serve, even after theyve ended their activeduty service. On veterans day, we should make it a point to go to every person that we know and thank them. We should make sure that anybody you see in uniform, ill be in the airport on thursday evening or friday, i will make it a point to go to every Single Person i see in uniform and thank them for their service. We owe that to g p them for all that they do for us. Now, i think, on the one hand, we need to think about veterans on veterans day, but w as senator hogan said, we need to think about them every day. As a senator, the way we do that is not just by thinking, but by doing. What more can we do on the capacity of veteranca Affairs Committee for the Armed Services committee to make service easier and safer, and after they move out of active status, veteran status, what more can we do for them . There are a lot of things we can do we need to make sure they get an opportunity to get a job that can leverage the skills they learn in the military in the private sector jobs. You know that we sponsored a bill that will be brought up before the senate that helps to actually expedite the process of having those who serve in the military to make it easier to put them in apprenticeship positions were maybe they leverage the skills they learned in activeduty to get them in good paying job so they can support their families. Theres a number of other things we need to do that are particularly important. When we talk w about posttraumatic stress or brain injury, those are sometimes invisible wounds of war. Nearly 20 veterans take their life every day to suicide. What do we do not know . Why are they more likely to do it . We need to go back and figure out how we can reach out to the population. A significant number of whom never even Seek Services to provide them with the services they need to work through these challenges. We need to make sure or getting healthcare and services where its most convenient to them. A lot of them will provide a brickandmortar presence to the va so they can go and be amongst other people were actually dealing with the same sort of circumstances and their being served by half the populationpuet in our Veterans Hospital and our Healthcare Centers where veterans themselves. This is a very important part of the broader solution that we need to provide our veterans as we continue to build a relationship with them for the rest of their lives. Mr. President , we will never finish all the work we need to do and will just keep making installments to it that we need to pay but what we need to do on november 11 is support our veteranss. Take an extra effort to thank a veteran, think of veteran spouse or child, the child of the veteran for their service to this great nation. We will never ever be able to fully repay the debt we owe them but we can make installments as citizens and congress and as long as im in the u. S. Senate, thats what i intend to do. Thank you for your service and thank all the men and women with that, yield the floor. Thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , this saturday is veterans day. Its a day that we honor the brave women and brave men who have served in the defense of this great nation. D we need to take a moment to reflect on the freedoms that we enjoy every day, and sometimes take for granted. We need to take that moment to thank those who devoted their lives to serve and protect the greatest nation in human history. As you know our country is home to over 20 million veterans. I have the privilege of representing more than 250,000 veterans in my state. Today i would like to talk about to those veterans. The two gentlemen i would like to talk about our mr. Schilling and mr. Messner. He enlisted in the United States marine corps in october 1941 in the age of 16. He was assigned as a rifleman to the six marine second marine division. He took part in combat operations during the final weeks of that body campaign. They were discharged from active duty in october 1945. In 1948, mr. Schilling tried to reenlist in the United States marine corps. He was married at the time. The marine corps turned down imhis request. Undaunted, mr. Schilling just went over and enlisted in the u. S. Navy. He spent another two years on active duty in defense of this country. He is now 92 years young. He lives in louisiana and he is a civil air chaplain. Mr. Messner was born in new orleans in the southern part of my state in 1923. He is very proud and we are all proud of him. That battle was a a fight to capture an airstrip in the pacifice ocean. The United States one. We prevailed due to the bravery of the armies 81st Infantry Division of which he was a member of. Upon his return in 1945, he went to tulane university. He has two daughters, five grandchildren, ten greatgrandchildrengr, all of whom are enjoying the freedom of this country that he fought so gallantly for, and he has resided in louisiana since 1942. It is imperative in my judgment that this veterans day and every veterans j day we honor the service and sacrificessa made by our women and men in uniform. Thats why i have introduced the bill. It is the 75th anniversary of the end of world war ii. I hope you will vote for this act. This bill would authorize a commemorative point to mark the milestone anniversary and the historic sacrifices of what has been termed the greatest generation. This bill will cost the american taxpayer zero dollars. Thanks to the bravery of 16 millionli american personnel, brave men and women, many of whom who have lost their lives in this conflict of world war i ii, against the ugliest form of tiny. The least we can do, it seems to me, mr. President , for those who fall for our freedom, is to ensure that institutions f are able to continue their mission of educating future generations of their role in world war ii and support the families of our veterans. I would like to urge all my colleagues to join with me, as i know they will, in thanking the millions of veterans who have fought and served our country. I hope we can all pray together for the safety of our women and men in uniform who are still serving today. Thank you, mr. President. With that, i sai suggest the absence of a quorum. 50 years ago, the United States was at war in vietnam. This veterans day weekend, American History tv looks back with 48 hours of coverage, starting at 8 00 a. M. Eastern. We are live from the National Archives among the backdrop of three helicopters and the pilots who flew them. Then we are taking your phone calls and tweets live with historians about the war in 1957. At 1 00 p. M. , from washington d. C. Vietnam Veterans Memorial , featured remarks by defense secretary and designer myelin. On real america, a 1967 cbs news special reports. Whether its due to the enemies clever tactics, or the bad fighting conditions, the weather or train, its clear that the American Military is bogged down, like the marines in the mud. Bennett six, unamerican artifacts, we will tour the National Archive exhibit, remembering vietnam. At 8 00 p. M. , on the presidency, 1957 Lyndon Johnson press conference. They are statement to the world of what we will do, if we had aggression in that part of the world in 1954, we said we would stand with those people in the face of common danger, and the time came when we had a put up or shut up and we put up and we are there. Watched the vietnam war, 50 years later on American History tv on cspan three. Sunday night on after words,. It was imperative to me because i had a platform, and if this is my 15 minutes and here i am, im here today, im not speaking on behalf of the fbi, im not speaking on behalf of any Intelligence Agency or behalf of anybody but myself, but i would like to say that i hope and pray that i am speaking on behalf of of the millions of Muslim Americans and the 1. 7 billion across the globe. I want them to feel comfortable and stand up and say that is not religion, that is whats being warped by al qaeda and isis. They are not the only ones with the voice anymore and that is my goal. Muslim american agent. [inaudible] talk about their mission of fighting terrorism. He is interviewed by michael german, author of sit thinking like a terrorist, insights of a former fbi undercover agent. Watch after words sunday night on cspan to book tv